Welcome back!

So on Saturday 18th August, myself and my best gal pal hit up Drag World at Olympia, London. So I have put together a little review up to the train ride home on the way to part 2 of our day which was Shakespeare in the garden by We Are Open Bar, but that’s a review for another time and by another time, I mean Wednesday.

So after we were totally mugged off by the lady at the tube station who had completely given us the wrong directions so we ended up a good 25 minutes from the venue, which resulted in a very confused, slightly lost potter, does turn out we are pretty good at using google maps and navigating.

So getting in just seemed like an unorganised cluster fuck, nothing set out and just seemed a bit like, yup potter that way, have your bag checked maybe and that’s that. Got to admit security was pretty lame.

After a quick walk round Drag World, we had walked round the whole of Drag World. We did run into the one and only Joseph Lincoln Hatch, who was looking like a beautiful glittery angel, but he did confirm what we had already started to suspect; it was all a little underwhelming.

Poorly set out; with no thought of the potential queues for the drag star’s booths, creating queues you could barely squeeze through. With the size of the Olympia, it could have been planned A LOT better. I heard a lot during the day that people were disappointed with Drag World.

For me, drag is about going to extremes and challenging the norm; and that’s what Drag World should have represented too. It just came across a little bit like a cash cow, how much can we pump out of the general public.

Let’s be realistic, the whole reason I went to Drag World was to meet Ginger Minj, which sadly I missed and that was heart breaking but I did manage to get a fan and leave a little gift at her merch stand, which is nice.

What made this experience better? Having my friend there, battling through people with someone. Plus we both fell in love with Stargazer liquid eyeliner and the women behind the stand. She was great, glitter sista for life.

I honestly think with a little re arranging, a little bit more oomph, it would be amazing. With a bit more everything, it would be amazing. A couple of photographers with a drag world back ground taking photos of people as they come in the door, like a beautiful draggy prom. Give me some glitter canons, some light up mirror, some werk signs for people to hold, just MORE. Just give me more everything. I wanted to live my whole drag fantasy, I  got more of a partial drag fantasy.

Will I be going again; likely because I would love to photograph at Drag World. Will I be sending a suggestion email to Drag World with some suggestions and a good old spreadsheet? You know I will. I hope they look forward to that!

There’s only so much wondering round the same batch of stalls over and over so we bailed on Drag World and headed to Gordon’s Wine Bar in Embankment.

If you haven’t been, then I throughly suggest going. Gordon’s Wine Bar. Opened in 1890, Gordon’s is believed to be the oldest wine bar in London. Sitting outside drinking a glass of bloody good wine with a good friend, makes me feel like I am sat in a back alley in Paris, getting my wine on. You sit either side of the pavement and you can watch people just potter by.

Inside, you can sit within the old cellars and it’s beautiful in there. It’s for sure somewhere that if you walked passed, and I have, 1’000’s of times and never noticed and now I am super glad Kerry  dragged my butt there. You can find a link here, go have a wine; https://gordonswinebar.com/

So after a decent wine, we had to bugger off and head to my home town, because Shakespeare in the garden at the Links. So after several wines, we a little tipsy on the train and that’s when we met Pete. As promised Pete, here is your shout out in my blog, written sober – not drunk as originally intended. We had great fun making Pete be our friend and discussing TV shows and films and telling us about his life. Pete, thank you so so much for dealing with our slightly tipsy selves, not shouting stranger danger in our faces, for offering us your chicken nuggets (which we politely declined) and congrats on your new job – you’re a very nice man!

So I hope you’re all super excited for the next part of this, Shakespeare in the Garden! Live in the next few days!